Allison McVety’s poems have been published widely including in the Times and have been broadcast on BBC radio. The Night Trotsky Came to Stay was shortlisted for the Forward Best FirstCollection Prize 2008. Allison has an MA in Poetry and was shortlisted for the inaugural Manchester Poetry Prize 2008.

On a side ward

my father is trying his death for size.
It’s off-the-peg, but even so,
consultants attend to the tailoring,
consider a final tuck. Getting the feel of it,
the weight of the cloth, he tells them
it’s heavy across the shoulders;
resigned, before he reads the label,
to wool. It looks too long in the sleeve,
the pockets drown his fists
to the elbow. He opens the jacket
shows me the name in the lining,
asks, is this really me?

First published in The Night Trotsky Came to Stay.